In this conversation, Cheryl McColgan discusses the importance of developing a gratitude practice as a healthy habit. She emphasizes the challenges of recognizing positive aspects in life due to our brain’s natural tendency to focus on negatives. Cheryl shares personal anecdotes and practical tips for cultivating gratitude, including writing down daily appreciations and reflecting on small joys. She highlights the scientific benefits of gratitude for overall well-being, resilience, and stress management, encouraging listeners to adopt this simple yet impactful practice.

Developing a gratitude practice can be challenging but rewarding.
Our brains are wired to focus on negatives rather than positives.
Finding small joys in daily life can enhance our perspective.
Gratitude practices are backed by research supporting well-being.
Writing down what you’re grateful for can change your brain’s response.
Reflecting on your day can help reinforce gratitude.
Using a physical journal may enhance the gratitude experience.
Gratitude can improve resilience and stress management.
Small, manageable habits are key to success.
Consistency in practicing gratitude leads to lasting benefits.

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Episode Transcript:

Cheryl McColgan (00:01.07)
Hey everyone, I’m Cheryl McColgan, founder of HealNursH Grow and welcome to day five of the Healthy Habits Challenge. So today is a habit that I’ve tried many times in the past. I haven’t always been able to get it to stick, but whenever I do it, I do find it really useful. And that is to develop a gratitude practice. But today, in the light of just, you we’re just doing small habits, manageable habits, we’re just gonna write one thing.

that we’re grateful for today. That’s it, one thing. And this is a challenge for some people because it’s really, you you might have a day where you think that there was nothing good to appreciate, and I hope you don’t have too many of those days. But what happens is our brain is kind of naturally wired to notice the negatives more than the positives. Our brain was evolved under this paradigm of like, there’s a lot of danger in the world. There’s animals and things that we had to watch out for and it’s a lot.

different nowadays, but our brains are still wired in that way. And so it tends to go to the negative things first and not notice the positive things in life. part of this habit is really changing the way that you look at everyday life and finding small joys. The way I like to look at finding things to be grateful for is it’s not always this grand thing. I mean, yes, every day we can be grateful for having a roof over our head or having a job that

pays us so that we can buy food and all those kinds of things. And those are probably the more obvious things that we’re grateful for. Or maybe your friend did something nice for you that day, or your husband or your spouse or your partner did something that you really appreciated. So those are all kind of easy things to think of to be grateful for. But I’ve started finding some things in my day where there’s just like these little moments of joy, and it’s something that just brings a smile to my face and…

you know, makes me think in a more positive way. So for example, the first time I recorded this, I lost some of the recordings, unfortunately. There was no sound for some reason. But anyway, I have this silly little sticker on my desk. And so if you’re not watching on YouTube, I’ll describe it to you. It’s just an alpine scene, retro with, it says, apres on it, like for apres ski. And this little silly thing.

Cheryl McColgan (02:18.988)
It just made me smile. was on Amazon looking for some Christmas things and I saw it and it’s just a sticker. So was very, very inexpensive and I bought it and it just brought me a little moment of joy. Now this doesn’t mean to say that it needs to be something that you buy because quite often it’s other things like I’ll notice a new flower comes out in our yard or something. I just take a moment to like really appreciate that and be grateful for it or trying to think of some other.

good examples or just appreciating a really good meal that you had or a good dish that you tried or, you know, just little things like that, something that you cooked, especially if somebody else made it for you, then it’s really something to be appreciated, right? So just finding those little joyful moments throughout your day can really help make this practice easier. And then if you decide again to take this on as a more serious

practice something that you’re going to maintain over time. And I do suggest that you try it because there’s plenty of research backing. As I said, with all the habits, there’s always something backing this up on why you want to do it. But this one, the research really shows that it just helps with your overall wellbeing. It helps again, train your brain to look for wins instead of always looking at the negative. And then a gratitude practice can also shift your attention to what’s working, which supports resilience and stress management.

And you know, stress management, who doesn’t need that, right? We could all use that. So just the fact that it improves overall wellbeing from this simple little practice of writing down what you’re grateful for each day. To me, it’s a no brainer. And I am really kind of mad at myself that I haven’t been better about taking on this practice more seriously over time. Now, I’d also say for this particular day that we’re just writing this one thing that we’re grateful for, I wanna encourage you to write it just

on a notepad or just hand a paper, write it instead of putting on your notes on your phone or instead of in your habit tracker, just because there is something very different about actually writing that affects your brain differently, I find. So just try that for today, actually writing it out. But you can also use, I’ve recommended a couple of apps for you to try that are either the habit trackers or journaling, that kind of thing. And you can, so you can also write it in your app. And if that makes it easier for you to do this practice.

Cheryl McColgan (04:38.39)
on a daily basis, then I would definitely use an app. But also a lot of people just like using an old school notebook or journal and just handwriting it down. the time that I was doing that for a while, I really did find that it shifted my perspective. It just made me feel a little more calm each day. So anyway, it’s an easy win. Just do it at the end of your day. That way can kind of take a moment to reflect on your day as well, which can often be a useful habit to have too.

And yeah, so that’s your goal for the day is to write down one thing that you’re grateful for. And as always, the show notes or the sorry, not the show notes, but the links are in the tracker and in your email. And so you can read about those studies that show how this gratitude practice works. And again, just as a reminder, those that’s always optional, but everyone you find one of these habits kind of speaks to you, that might be the time to dig in and read.

a little bit of the research or to do the journal prompt at the end of the day so you can really explore like why you think this would help you and how it’s helping you and that sort of thing. But those are all optional. Again, we’re trying to keep this simple and repeatable and small wins. So you just do your one thing, your habit, you write it down. It doesn’t take too much time at all. And yeah, so start there, stick to that. But always if you’re inspired to do more, that’s always encouraged too. So that’s it for today. I will chat with you again tomorrow. Have a great night. Bye bye.

In this conversation, Cheryl McColgan discusses the significance of establishing a wind down routine before bed to enhance sleep quality. She emphasizes the importance of calming activities, such as reading, warm baths, and reducing screen time, to prepare the body and mind for sleep. Cheryl also touches on the use of sleep supplements and tools to improve sleep, highlighting the critical role of good sleep in overall health and wellness.

Create a simple wind down cue before bed.
Calm your brain and nervous system for better sleep.
Screen time at night is a poor habit for sleep.
Reading before bed can help you relax.
Warm baths signal your body to calm down.
Turning off bright lights aids in winding down.
Sleep is critical for health and longevity.
Good sleep supports weight loss and fat loss.
Consider a warm drink as part of your bedtime routine.
Engage with others about effective wind down routines.

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Episode Transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:00.078)
Hey everyone, I’m Cheryl McColgan, founder of HealNurshGrow and welcome to day four of your healthy habits challenge. Today’s habit is very simple, but it’s so powerful and it has to do with one of the things that I think is one of the most underappreciated aspects of health and that is sleep. And so the habit that we’re going to do today is to create a simple wind down cue before bed.

So what this does is basically gets you ready for sleep, starts to calm your brain, starts to calm your nervous system so that you can actually get in bed and go to sleep instead of getting in bed and staying wired for multiple minutes or even hours after that. Definitely something we want to avoid. So having this consistent wind down cue is exactly what it does. Cues your brain and your body to be ready for sleep and to start to calm down.

There’s any number of things that this could possibly be for you. One of the things that you will have heard from many people in the past, and this is so true, is that screen time at night is really a poor habit to have to get good sleep. So maybe your wind down cue is putting your phone in the other room and putting it on the charger before you get ready for bed.

That’s a great way to do that. It also cuts down on the blue light. So that will allow your body to produce melatonin, which gives you better sleep. But this cue is something you want to do consistently every day, just so that it gives again, your brain and your body that idea that it’s time to calm down. Another thing that people really like doing for this type of cue is to simply do some reading before bed.

And so again, not reading on a device like your computer or your phone, but maybe an old school book. I know that sounds crazy or the the Kindles now have, they don’t have any blue light coming off of them. And just reading is just very calming in the evening. It’ll put you right to sleep. Even books that you’re in love with and excited about. Sometimes it’s like, it just starts to get you very drowsy and you want to ideally do it in bed. as soon as you really start to get sleepy, you just put the book aside and go to sleep.

Cheryl McColgan (02:16.782)
Another one that’s great for bedtime is a warm bath. The whole reason that this works is warming up your body. And ideally you want to do it maybe an hour to an hour and a half before bed. But again, it’s a relaxing activity. It’s something that signals it’s time to calm down and get ready for sleep. But it also has a physiological response in the body where you warm up your body temperature a little bit. Then when you get out and it starts to come back down,

your body temperature coming back down actually makes you sleepy. So that’s another good one. But really any of these, can be anything that works for you. You just want it to be something that you can do on a consistent basis and that actually helps calm your nervous system. So it could also be, you know, a breathing exercise or some light stretching or, you know, anything like that, that’s going to make going to bed easier for your body. Another one is,

Turning off bright lights. So maybe your cue for your wind down is to go around your house and turn off all the lights and maybe you just have like a gentle Red light in the room or just dim lights in your room as you’re winding down But just doing those cues time after time eventually it gets your body to a place where It’s calm enough and it’s ready some other things that I use for sleep since we’re talking about sleep sometimes just a wind down cue is not enough for some people but

Again, I think if you practice it on a consistent basis, that’s going to change over time where it really does help you get to sleep. But there’s other things. There’s supplements you can take. mentioned melatonin. I actually wouldn’t recommend taking that on a regular basis because it does tend to make you feel groggy in the morning. In addition to that, it can also affect your own melatonin production over time. So that’s kind of not as recommended. But there’s plenty of sleep supplements. Sorry, I was losing my word there. Sleep supplements out there.

that I’ve tried, I’ve used a brand called Dream. I had a new one sent to me that was from, the company’s escaping me. It’s kind of a funny name, but I’ll link it in the show notes. So also that could be part of your ritual is if it’s both of these drinks are kind of like a hot cocoa that you drink at night that has magnesium, GABA, some other sleep inducing things in it. So that could be your ritual is to make your nice warm drink, go get in your bed, sit that, relax, and then.

Cheryl McColgan (04:38.434)
go to sleep. So that’s one of the tools that I tend to use a lot. And then I’ve also talked a lot about in the past that I use a bed cooling pad. So I’m menopausal age, unfortunately. And a few years ago, I started getting horrible night sweats where it just really interrupted my sleep. So I started using a cooling pad on my bed about five years ago. And now it is so hard for me to sleep without it because it actually not only cools you but warms you as well.

and can use it to like gently warm the bed as your, almost as your alarm clock. Instead of using a harsh alarm, it just starts to warm up your body and wake you up very naturally. So depending on where you are with sleep, this wind down cue is a great start. And that’s all we’re looking for in this challenge, right? Just trying some new little habit snacks that you can see if it works for you or you can see if it would do you good to add it on in the future.

But this is just the beginning. So sleep is such, like I said, such a critical and underappreciated thing for health, longevity, for weight loss even, helps with fat loss. I mean, there’s so many reasons why you want to get good sleep, but this is just a small way that you can get started. Start repeating this if it speaks to you. If you’re someone that has trouble with sleep, I highly recommend that you take this one on and keep it for the rest of the challenge and beyond, because it will only help you.

It may not be enough, like I said, but it is great stars. So some of those things that I mentioned, I’ll make sure I link them in the show notes. But for now, just create your simple wind down cue before bed. Try it out, see how you sleep and let me know in the comments if this works for you. If you already have a wind down routine, I’d love to hear about it because I think everybody wants to hear some good ideas if they can’t think of anything that works for them or speaks to them. So definitely let me know if you have any tips and we can share them with everybody else in the comments. OK.

See you again tomorrow.

In this conversation, Cheryl McColgan emphasizes the significance of incorporating movement into daily life as part of a healthy habit challenge. She discusses the importance of discipline, consistency, and starting small with just 10 minutes of movement each day.

Cheryl highlights the benefits of exercise for both physical and mental health, including its effectiveness in combating depression and anxiety. She encourages listeners to find ways to make movement a habit and to build up their heart health gradually.

Discipline is just repetition and consistency.
Start with small steps to build a habit.
Exercise can be as effective as medication for depression.
Aim for at least 10 minutes of movement daily.
Strength training twice a week is sufficient for health.
Consistency is key to maintaining healthy habits.
Find ways to make exercise enjoyable and engaging.
Track your progress to stay motivated.
Overcoming mental barriers is crucial for exercise.
Building heart health takes time and patience.

Watch on YouTube

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Episode Transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:01.08)
Hey everyone, I’m Cheryl McColgan, founder of HealNourishGrow and welcome to day three of the 30 day healthy habits challenge. Today we’re going to talk about movement. So even though you’ve already been doing that as a component of this challenge from day one, I just want to talk about the importance of it. Again, reminding you that discipline is just repetition and consistency. So even on days that we aren’t motivated to move quite often, just knowing that it’s a habit, making that commitment to discipline is enough to make it work.

And so today you’re just doing 10 minutes of movement. Maybe you’re trying something different than the other days that you’ve already moved in this challenge. That’s one thing I want to encourage you to do throughout the 30 days is you’re doing your 10 minutes of movement per day. Say you like, like I do have already a regimen where you lift weights a few times a week. I happen to be doing five, but whatever works for you actually based on the research, just two days a week of strength training is enough, but we’ll talk more about that at some other time.

But so for example, for me, I’m very bad about stretching and mobility. So that’s the kind of thing that I’m going to be doing for my 10 minutes a day for my movement. So I’m going to keep my regular thing that I’ve already been doing on a consistent basis. And I’m going to add that in through the 30 days. So the minimum counts, you don’t have to do more than 10, but just challenge yourself to do 10 minutes of whatever it does. So why this matters is obviously there’s so many components of health. And I think that everybody has pretty much heard all of these things at this point.

But for your heart health you need to get your heart rate up every day I think that the recommendation now that is being said is hundred and fifty minutes per week So we’re just doing ten minutes a day. We’re not quite there yet But what I want to do is again encourage you to start slowly. You don’t go from zero to a thousand Instantaneously, you know, we need to build up practice build up our heart health build up our heart strength to get to those longer

amounts of activity. And so if you’re a person that doesn’t move consistently on a daily basis now, setting yourself up for failure is what’s going to happen if you say, I’m going to walk for half an hour every single day when you’ve been doing nothing. It’s just too much. That’s the way that people, you know, get into these new year’s resolutions and don’t make it very long because they, bit off more than they can choose. So doing these small steps really helps. In addition,

Cheryl McColgan (02:22.912)
Exercise is actually more effective than antidepressants for depression. Yes, you heard me say that right. Why every doctor and every psychiatrist and every psychologist does not promote this. is in their literature. It is very clear that exercise is as effective as medication for depression and anxiety. Now, if you’re on this medication, I’m not telling you to get off. I’m not a doctor. I’m not saying that it doesn’t help you or that you don’t need any of those things. Nobody’s saying that.

But consider, especially for certain types of depression, that exercise is just as effective. Studies have shown this time and again. So if your medication is not working for you, or if you’ve had to add on medication because it doesn’t seem to be effective, consider that exercise might really be a great addition to your mental health and discuss that with your doctor. And like I said, there’ll be some research links in this right here. I can’t remember if those…

specifically were in this one because I could put that I could put in there probably 100 links for each of these habits if I really wanted to but I just wanted to keep it obviously brief so that you might actually look at them and read them but if this is something you’re interested in just go to pubmed.gov and type in exercise and depression or exercise and anxiety and you’ll just see a whole huge long list of research in this area. But the idea with the movement

is we want to show up still when motivation is low. Because like I said, we’re not always gonna be motivated every day, but we can practice discipline every day. And my trick, and I used to be a runner, I’m not anymore, but I ran consistently for 17 years and my knees gave out. And if I had to do it all over again, I never would have done that kind of exercise. If I would have strength trained when I was younger, more consistently, I would have just been so much more happier and my body would be so much better off for it.

But anyway, it was a practice of discipline and I did it whether I liked it or not. And what was really effective for me on days that I really didn’t want to go run, even though I was scheduled to go run, is I’d be like, okay, just put on your workout clothes and just go out for five minutes. And after five minutes, you still don’t really want to go, just come home. And I would mentally convince myself of that more times than I care to admit. And sure enough, I’d go out and I’d get started. you can guess probably the amount of times I turned around and game home.

Cheryl McColgan (04:45.304)
game home, that was like zero. I don’t, literally don’t think I ever did that once I started, once I got out the door. And so that’s another, just trick yourself. Sometimes it’s even just, I’m just going to put on my workout clothes and then see what happens. So, you know, just find ways to do that. Find ways to make it a habit. And again, this is a reason we’re starting with 10 minutes, cause it’s so small that you almost can’t.

Like you can’t convince yourself not to do it almost because it’s so little. It’s easy when I think of like, I think I got to go to the gym and I’m going to be resistance training for the next hour. That’s easy to convince myself out of. But if I convince myself, okay, I’m just going to go to the downstairs gym and I’ll just do a few things. And if I really don’t feel like it, then I just won’t finish again. That, that really never happens. The key is just getting yourself out the door or getting the shoes on or whatever it is with the movement you’re going to choose getting in that cold pool. Once you’re in there, you’re going to be fine. It’s just getting to that point.

So as always the links to those studies will be in the tracker for you and in the email and Be sure to check off your habits We want to keep that consistency going and keep that little gamification of you Making the checkmark having your list that up how many days in the road do you have a streak? Let’s just keep it all going. So have a great rest of your day and I will see you again tomorrow

For day two of the 30 day healthy habits challenge, Cheryl shares why hydration is so important and how to use this simple yet important habit to start your day.

Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.

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Episode Transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:00.098)
Hey everyone, I’m Cheryl McColgan and welcome to day two of the 30 day healthy habits challenge. This one I’m really excited to share with you. It is something that I have been meaning to do for a long time. So I will be doing this throughout the challenge with you. And that is to drink a glass of water after waking. That is so simple and yet I don’t know, I never do it. Do you? So ideally you want to do this.

before you have your coffee, before you have anything else. I’m not telling you a very specific amount, but they make it a large glass of water. So in my world, I have this, actually I have it right here on my desk. It is empty. So it’s proof positive that I need to be drinking more water. But this is about 16 to 20 ounces in this glass. And that is what I like you to do before you do anything else. Now, if you happen to get this on the, you you get this in the morning, but more than likely,

You might have already had your coffee or you’re listening to this while you’re drinking your coffee. If that’s the case, like I said, this is easy peasy challenge, right? No big deal. Just try it tomorrow instead, along with your habit that’s going to come tomorrow. But if you’re hearing this in time, drink that glass of water before anything else and then you can move on. So why this is important. Even mild dehydration can affect your mood and attention.

And hydrating early in the day, it supports everything, energy, digestion, performance, you’re hydrating your cells. And one of the people that I interviewed before on the podcast, they were saying, ideally, you know, for the challenge, we’re drinking this kind of large glass right at the beginning of the day, but ideally, you want to be hydrating throughout your day, because you need that extra hydration for your cells on an ongoing basis, not just all at once. So as much as we hate those little Stanley cups and everything that people carry around,

If you can have one of those or have this glass of water on your desk and take a few sips like every few minutes, that’s really the ideal way to hydrate. And this is again, starting the day with a simple success. just gives you a good mindset for the entire day, knowing that you already had one small win and it’s just a great habit to start. So another thing you can do is you can set this habit up at night. So maybe you actually put a glass of water

Cheryl McColgan (02:14.754)
by your bed before you go to sleep. And that way when you wake up, you immediately drink that glass of water. This can also help if you’re like me, I take thyroid medication first thing in the morning and I have to wait 30 minutes before I can eat or do anything else anyway. So how I’m gonna approach this challenge is I always just, my thyroid pills are very, very small. So I always swallow them dry while I’m still in bed in the morning. But I’m gonna make it a point for this challenge to bring up a glass of water with me in the evening, put it next to my bed, put it right next to my thyroid pills.

And I’ll just do that all at once. So that’s also a little intro into what we call habit stacking, which we’ll be talking about throughout this challenge, but more specifically on one of the days. but basically all habit stacking is, is just take one thing that you already do consistently and then put another habit right with it. So for me, I am very good about always taking my thyroid medication in the morning, but I don’t have a glass of water next to it. And I generally don’t get out of bed to do it. So the way I’m going to make it easy on myself is to just put a glass of water next to the bed.

So anyway, it’s like I said, if you missed it this morning, try it tomorrow and then try it with the habit. That’s how kind of all these are. it’s for some reason, you don’t get the email until later in the day and you miss it, just do it the next day. They’re two simple habits. They don’t take any time at all. And so waiting until the next day is completely fine. So again, no need to be perfect. Just one glass. If you do a smaller glass than me, no judgment there. You can do whatever size works for you, but drink a glass of water. Okay. I will see you tomorrow.

In this conversation, Cheryl McColgan introduces the Healthy Habits Challenge, emphasizing the importance of choosing three focus areas for personal growth over the next 30 days.

She discusses the significance of daily movement, consistency, and mindfulness in forming new habits. The challenge encourages participants to track their progress and integrate meaningful habits into their daily lives, ultimately aiming to reduce overwhelm and enhance motivation.

Choose three focus areas for the next 30 days.
Daily movement should be at least 10 minutes.
Focus on what is meaningful to you.
Track your progress to stay motivated.
Customize the challenge to fit your lifestyle.
Reduce overwhelm by having clear priorities.
Practice discipline through repetition and consistency.
Integrate new habits into your daily routine.
Eliminate decision fatigue with focused goals.

Watch on YouTube

Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.

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Shop all my healthy lifestyle favorites, lots of discounts! 

21 Day Fat Loss Kickstart: Make Keto Easy, Take Diet Breaks and Still Lose Weight 

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Clean Beauty 20% off first order

DIY Lashes 10% off 

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Facebook

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Getting Started with Keto Podcast Episode

Getting Started with Keto Resource Guide

Episode transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:01.048)
Hey everyone, I’m Cheryl McColgan, founder of Feel Nourish Grow and welcome to day one of the Healthy Habits Challenge. I’m really excited to get this started and kick this off with you. This, if you’re in 2026, this is the first year I’ve started this, starting on January 1st, but the awesome thing is it’s available anytime. So whenever you’re hearing this, this is your day one. So today is to choose your three focus areas.

We’re doing discipline as repetition as consistency. It is just something that you learn over time, but you do have to practice it. You don’t have to be perfect. You just need to do it. And so today’s habit won’t take you too long at all. You’re going to choose the three focus areas for the next 30 days and then write the smallest version of each one that still counts. And so this could be things for you. I mean, we have the daily movement, which is 10 minutes a day.

So if you already have a really regular exercise program, maybe you commit to adding one day a week of some new movement or maybe it’s a slightly longer movement or maybe your focus area is working on your spirituality or maybe it is mindfully drinking if you drink alcohol. I actually have some friends over at Sunnyside.

And they are doing a totally free challenge for this month too that focuses on just being more mindful around drinking. You don’t have to do a totally dry January. It can be kind of a semi dry January. But anyway, they are offering that for totally free. You don’t even have to put your credit card in. I’ve got a special link for that and I will make sure that that is in the show notes and down below for you if you’re on YouTube. So it could be that could be your focus area. It could be your relationships, focusing on your relationships.

taking more time to connect with people or to make sure that you communicate with certain people on a daily basis in a certain way. So really it’s just going to be whatever is meaningful to you. I want you to pick those three focus areas and the way that you’ll carry that throughout the challenge is ideally you’re going be tracking in some way. So I’ve designed a spreadsheet tracker for you and that is in the email. You’ll copy that and then you can use it to just check off the things you’re doing.

Cheryl McColgan (02:14.39)
You can also use it to make a note of what your three focus areas are. And so ideally, every day when you get the email and or watch the video or listen to the podcast, I want you to have those three focus areas in mind and see if there’s a way that you can integrate the habit that we’re trying into those focus areas so that it’s really meaningful to you. It won’t always work. There will be some of the habits that you’ll just be trying just to try and they won’t necessarily relate to your three areas of focus.

but you’re just going to be mindful on a daily basis of these focus areas and keep those as something in the back of your mind that you’re always trying to work towards. And if there’s any way that you can integrate it with the daily habit, then that’s even better. So this is all you have to do today, along with your 10 minutes of daily movement, because that’s going to be every single day. And this is any movement that works for you. There’s more explanation about it in the email, but it could be really anything canoeing, biking, running, walking, dancing, yoga.

just any kind of joyful movement, ideally something that gets your heart rate up just a little bit. So depending on where you are in your fitness journey, that can literally just be walking around the block or say, you know, that you’re a runner. Maybe you make a new habit around 30 days to do something slightly different with that, whether it’s increasing your speed or taking more days off. If that’s something that you need, I want you to really just honor your body, but you’re still going to move your body for 10 minutes every single day.

So if you’re already very, very active, that might look something more like on your day that’s supposed to be a rest day. Maybe it’s just some gentle stretching or mobility work. So really you’re going to customize this challenge so that it works exactly well for you. But anyway, starting with your focus areas, it just creates clear priorities throughout this 30 day challenge. It’s going to reduce overwhelm because you’re just going to focus on those three things right now, nothing else outside of that. That’s not to say that you don’t have other goals or other things that you want to prioritize in the future.

But for this 30 days, we just want to give clear focus to these three so we can really give those a chance to take hold. And this clarity is just, like I said, reduce your overwhelm. It’s going to eliminate decision fatigue because any time there’s a question, you just go back to those three priorities and you’re going to make that very clear in your mind that’ll help you make your decision. And so you just spend less time deciding and more time doing ideally with those high priorities in mind.

Cheryl McColgan (04:34.478)
It should also just take a little less mental energy when you know that those are your priorities and you’ve already decided that’s what you’re focused on for this 30 days should make everything a little bit easier. So I would also like you to consider if you’re a person that this kind of motivation works for you instead of just having it, know, on your phone in a tracker app and there’ll be some links in that first email for apps that I like and things that you can use. But it’s also nice to just maybe see it in the morning when you get up. So if you always

you know, go in the bathroom to get ready in the morning, maybe writing your three focus areas for the month on a sticky note and putting it on your mirror or making it your screen saver on your phone, just somewhere where you’re going to see it often enough that it keeps it high priority in your mind. And then also consider each day as you go through this challenge, you’re going to get the habit in the morning and your email and

Most of these, there should be plenty of time throughout the day to fit this in. Like I said, it only takes five to 15 minutes, but also just consider what your day looks like on a daily basis and maybe kind of mentally map out a time where you’re going to plan to do this habit. So maybe for you, it’s morning, lunch or evening, or maybe it’s a very specific time of the day. You could set a timer on your phone. Like usually when you have a little, maybe you have a little downtime, you set the timer and then that’s when you’ll do the habit for the day.

So that’s some ideas on just how to integrate it and make it easier. But like I said, today, every day is going to be a very simple habit. take five to 15 minutes. So identifying these three focus areas, I think for most people it will come to mind pretty quickly. But you can certainly take a little bit more time if you really want to mentally evaluate where you’ve been in your life lately and what three areas could use the most work. So this.

in theory could be the longest day of habits, but it’s going to set you up for success for the whole month. But for a lot of us, we kind of already know which areas we should be working on. And so coming up with those three might even only take you two to three minutes. So anyway, best of luck today. As always, if you’re having super challenges during this time and or you have questions about the program, most of these things should be pretty obvious. And some of the things are a little bit ambiguous on purpose so that it gives you some flexibility. So as long as you are making

Cheryl McColgan (06:57.462)
you know, having your three priorities, making those the thing that you’re going to focus on and then trying the one habit for the day. That’s really all that you need to do. So until tomorrow, good luck with the habits today and I will see you soon.

In this episode, Cheryl McColgan introduces Healthy Habits Foundations, the free 30 Day Healthy Habits Challenge created for anyone who is tired of starting over. Instead of relying on motivation or chasing perfection, this program helps you build discipline through small daily actions that fit real life.

Built around three pillars, movement, mindset, and consistency, the challenge takes just 5 to 15 minutes a day and includes a daily video or podcast, supportive emails, research links, journal prompts, and a tracker to help you stay consistent. It is not another weight loss challenge and it is not an all-or-nothing reset. If you miss a day, you do not fail, you simply begin again.

Cheryl explains why small habits are the foundation for bigger goals, how flexible daily movement can work even in a busy schedule, and why systems and repetition matter more than willpower. This is an anytime, evergreen challenge you can start whenever you need a reset.

Refined takeaways

How small habits become the foundation for bigger long-term goals

Why motivation fades and discipline is the skill that lasts

How 5 to 15 minutes a day can build real momentum

Why movement, mindset, and consistency are the foundation of the challenge

What participants get each day: audio or video, emails, research links, prompts, and a tracker

Why this is not a weight loss challenge or an all-or-nothing program

How flexible 10-minute daily movement can fit real life

Why missing a day does not mean starting over from scratch

Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.

Watch on YouTube

Episode Transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:00.184)
Hi everyone, I’m Cheryl McColgan, founder of HealNourishCrew. And today I wanted to chat with you about a new program that I’m starting. And it’s basically this time of year, know, everyone’s interested in making a lot of resolutions and starting new habits, but they’re really hard to maintain over time. And that’s where I really wanted to be able to help you and hopefully create a program that will actually help you meet your goals and make the challenges.

that you want to make this year. So what I’m starting is a 30 day healthy habits challenge. If you’re tired of starting over, this is going to be the program for you. Everybody starts the new year, you know, with a lot of motivation. And that is something that wanes over time quite often before even the end of January people have given up. But the challenge is to create something that you can maintain for the whole year, right? And that really comes down to discipline.

because while motivation may wax and wane, discipline is something that’s very real and it’s also something, a skill that you can actually train so that you will be better and better at it the more that you practice. And that’s what this program is all about. So building that skill over 30 days, it’s going to be small habits each day so we can learn to train that skill and it’s free. It’s totally free. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time because

habits and consistency and discipline are something that has been in my content for years now. And I’ve always wanted to do this and I can never just quite figure out a great way to deliver it and to make it make sense. But basically it’s built on three pillars. And this is how I wanted to challenge you with this because I think it’s habits that will sustain you for your whole life, obviously. And that is daily movement, mindset and consistency.

And so each day that we practice these short habits, it’s only going to take five to 15 minutes total each day, get a short video. And that’s why I’m starting this now, because this is the introduction, tell you all about it. And then there will also be audio on my podcast feed. And so if you are in a big rush and you are driving to work, you can still listen to the habit, learn the research behind it, learn a little bit about why we’re trying it. And you’ll be able to listen to that.

Cheryl McColgan (02:21.898)
on your daily movement, you’re taking walks or you’re biking or whatever it is you’re doing. So there’ll be the podcast feed. And then you also get an email that lays out the challenge for the day, gives you the research links. There’s a handy tracker. I’m suggesting some apps for tracking. Also, if you’d like to do that and make it completely digital. the habit tracker spreadsheet still works perfectly great too. So you don’t, if you want to keep it simple and old school, that’s totally fine. So what this is not, this is not another weight loss challenge.

This is not all or nothing like a lot of you have heard of or tried 75 hard. This is not about perfect. This is about just practicing consistency day after day. And if you miss a day, it doesn’t mean you have to start over. It doesn’t mean you failed. It just means that you start over again. And that is really what I have learned over the years. And what I when I practice my discipline, it’s not that I’m perfect all the time. It’s just that I always start over and I don’t wait till Monday. I don’t wait till the next day.

Once I realize that in the moment, I notice that and start again, right? That moment. And that’s the kind of practice that we’re going to be doing throughout this whole challenge. So your daily checklist will look something like this. You’ll either watch or listen to the day’s video. You’ll do the habit of the day. You’ll do your daily movement of 10 minutes. If you’re somebody that already exercises a whole lot more, this is already part of your lifestyle. Obviously you’re going to continue to do that, but I will challenge you to maybe make some

different kind of choices in your movement patterns. So if you’re a runner, let’s say, maybe challenging yourself to try some yoga or try some mobility work or strength training, if that’s not something that you do currently. So you’ll do the habit, you’ll do your movement and you’ll check these off in the tracker. Hopefully it’ll give you a great sense of accomplishment. It always does for me when I’m checking off things off my list. And then optional things.

are to do the journal prompts. So you’ll get a journal prompt each day and to read the PubMed link, because I don’t want you to just think I’m picking habits here at random. Obviously, a lot of these are based on my own personal experience, habits that I think are very, very helpful and contribute to your health. But the reason that we do these habits is because they’re based on research. So that there’s at least some…

Cheryl McColgan (04:36.43)
something behind it that why it’s good for you and you can read the study or not, or just read the abstract and read the conclusion just to get an idea. But basically, you can dig into this as much as you want. So if there’s a particular habit that really speaks to you when you try it, that might be the day where you take those items that were optional and add them in. And the reason I’m trying to keep this to five to 15 minutes is because we want the small wins here. You don’t want to take on something that’s so challenging that you set yourself

up for failure for the very beginning. Small habits build into big habits and you’ve got to take it one step day by day to get to these bigger habits that we have in mind for ourselves in the future. So it’s like you wouldn’t, you know, if you want to build a beautiful house, right, you’re not just going to get a bunch of two by fours and start nailing them together. You have no foundation. It won’t hold up over time. And so that’s the same.

thing that we can do here. We’re going to build the foundation and then later after you’ve built these small habits or found things that really help you on a daily basis, then you can tackle the bigger things and bigger goals and goals that are five-year goals, 10-year goals, that kind of thing. But it really starts with these everyday little habits. So we’re going to set up so that these systems help you beat willpower. You’re just going to do it every day and they’re so easy you almost can’t skip them. That’s what I like about them. You just return quickly to it if you missed one.

And there’s no shame, there’s no judgment. It’s just, we’re all human, right? We’re all gonna miss a day or we’re gonna have a day that’s so busy, but these are really small. So hopefully you’ll be able to do that. The movement is very flexible. It’s really whatever works for you. I like to say that find something that’s like a joyful movement that you can do once in a while. So for me, it’s like, you know, dancing around the kitchen while I’m cooking or something like that. That just makes me happy. Put on some good music. But then of course I have my strength training that I do and walking and all of that.

but you’re going to pick one that works for you. So if it’s hard to squeeze these things into work, it’s only 10 minutes. You might walk a little bit over your lunch break. You could walk five minutes in the morning, five minutes at night. And of course, if you can do more and want to do more and you have more time that day, please feel free. This is not, this is just the minimum. This is just getting you into the habit of moving your body every single day. And then we’re going to just realize that even on busy days, that’s where you fit in these little tiny things.

Cheryl McColgan (06:58.31)
So let’s see here. I want to make sure that I don’t miss anything. Okay, we’re not dieting. We’re not losing weight. You’ll have the tracker. So yeah, I think I covered all of the points. just was going through my notes just to make sure that I didn’t miss anything. But I think that that gives you a good sense of what this challenge is about. If you don’t know me already and you come across this, you’re like, well, who is this that’s leading this challenge?

I have a whole about page over at my website, but basically my degree is in psychology. have some graduate training in psychology. I’m a registered, experienced yoga teacher. I’ve practiced yoga for over 20 years. I have been strength training now, consistent. I’ve done it my whole life, but really only gotten consistent the last three years. And so that’s been a really exciting thing for me as what I classify now as an older person. It’s so important to health. And so you’ll probably learn a little bit about that somewhere along in the challenge as well.

And then I’m also studying for my personal training certification. I don’t know if ever use it, but I’ve just been so into learning all the things around strength training that I thought, hey, why not? And then it’s something that I can share with you guys and hopefully, you know, give you some further information to benefit you and your goals. But yeah, so that’s a little bit about who I am. If you want to learn more and go over to the about page of my website and I am on stories daily and Instagram. And as we start this challenge, I’m to be starting at January 1st. I’m going to be doing it along with you.

A lot of you will be starting on January 1st is awesome, but the great thing about this is I’ve set it up to be evergreen content on the website. So anytime you go to the website and click and sign up, you can start the challenge that very next day. So it’s something also that if you get, like I said, there’s no off track. Hopefully you want to complete the 30 days and just if you miss a day, go again. But say you get busy and you kind of just give up on it, but you come to a time in your life again where you want to restart. You can always do that. It’ll be there for you to do 30 days.

at a time, anytime of year, because like I said, that’s what I always believe in. I don’t think you should wait. I think whenever you have the inkling to make a change, to start something, start it today, start it now. Just the only thing I will say is if you happen to find this before January 1st of 2026, I am in the process still of completing the content. At this point, it is Monday, December 29th. So hopefully it’s further along by the time you find this.

Cheryl McColgan (09:20.59)
and it should be available. But if for whatever reason it’s up and you sign up before January 1st, then you’re just going to have to wait a couple of days before you get started. So now the most important thing, if you’re listening on audio on the podcast feed to sign up, you’re going to go to healnourishgrow.com slash habits. And if you’re here on YouTube, the link will be down below. But yeah, I hope you join me. I think this should be fun.

Like I said, it is a challenge. It’s 30 days of consistency, but it is nothing that you can’t handle. And I think it’ll give you a lot of confidence and a lot of interest in learning more about discipline and practicing them on a daily basis. And it’s just like your muscles, the more you practice it, the stronger it gets. So let’s all get more disciplined in 2026 together. And I’d love to have you join me and help you meet your goals. anyway, until, if well, you’re listening to the podcast, I’m gonna say until tomorrow, I will see you soon.

Okay, thanks, bye.

In this episode of the Heal Nourish Grow podcast, Cheryl McColgan shares her holiday greetings and personal updates, discusses the importance of building habits for the new year, and introduces a 30-day habit challenge designed to help listeners create lasting changes in their lives.

She also highlights resources for a healthier new year, including a Quit Sugar summit and the significance of understanding macros in nutrition. Cheryl emphasizes the importance of small steps and invites listeners to join her on this journey towards better health and wellness.

Five Things You Need to Create Good Habits: https://youtu.be/8OVjrPu9UoM

Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.

00:00 Holiday Greetings and Personal Updates
01:23 Building Habits for the New Year
04:03 Introducing the 30-Day Habit Challenge
06:58 Resources for the New Year: Quit Sugar Summit
08:36 Exploring Macros and Nutrition
11:42 Upcoming Content and Closing Thoughts

Episode Transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:01)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Heal Nurse Ro podcast. If you can tell a little bit of difference in my voice, I’ve actually had a cold for a bit and I’m just now to the point where my voice is somewhat normal and I’m not sniffling and sneezing and being totally obnoxious. So I really wanted to go ahead and record this episode to share several things with you and to wish you happy holidays. Where I am right now in the US, it is currently Christmas Eve.

So I have actually still got a lot of things to do today. We’re actually having lasagna for dinner. The boys are both home for Christmas. So that is their request. So I’ll be making some homely lasagna tonight. And then tomorrow we will be enjoying a roast beast, which I always kind of laugh when I say that because it’s from the Grinch movie, I believe. I always call it the roast beast. So just a roasted.

Primed Rib Roast and yeah, so looking forward to sharing the holiday with my family and just catching up on some things quite honestly, because the last several weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind and with me not feeling as well, I’m behind on some things that I need to record and share with you. So we’ll just get right into it. The first thing I wanna talk about is building habits in the new year. So.

We’re getting ready to come into that time. And if you followed my content for a while, you’ve heard me talk about it before is whenever we come to this time of year, people make a lot of New Year’s resolutions. And typically what happens is by sometimes even before the end of January, people have already given up on their resolutions or they what usually happens actually is they’ve bitten off more than they can chew. They’ve made these kind of resolutions that are

just too big without taking the steps they need to do first to build up to that. And so I always like to encourage you to take small little steps towards habits. That’s really how you create lasting change. If you go to my YouTube channel, if you’re listening to this on audio, if you’re watching a video, you’re already on YouTube and I will try to link the video here if I can figure out how to do that. But I have a video on five things you need to create better habits. And that was covered by Authority Magazine.

think it’s maybe it was in 2019 or something like that. So this is certainly something that I have been focused on a long time in my content and in my own personal life, trying to create better habits, new habits. As I go through that the year, I really don’t wait until January. I’ll pick something up whenever it occurs to me that I really need it in my life. So right now I’ve got several things that I’m working on. A lot of it related to work.

But the one thing I kept thinking about this and I’ve thought about doing this for years and sharing this with you and it really wasn’t until this year where I was able to conceive of it in a way that I can bring it to fruition and really deliberate in a way that I think will be useful to everyone. It’s 100 % free. So I’m really excited about that because I just want to share information that will help you live a happier, healthier life. know, healers show has been around for I believe it’s going to be.

eight years this coming summer. I’ll have to go back and look when I actually launched it, but my about page that I wrote way back then is I’ve never changed it because it still just holds the same meaning to me what I want to share with people, how I want to help them be healthier, share information that’s based on the latest research. You know, I’ve certainly changed my mind about several things over the years and I think it’s important to be able to do that when presented with new information. So

Anyway, what this is all about, it’s a 30 day challenge, but it’s not the kind of challenge you’re thinking about the kind that you’ve tried before and you weren’t able to get through it was it’s too crazy or 75 hard, which is just an insane amount of things you have to do on a daily basis. And it really just sets people up for failure in my opinion, because in it’s well, I guess it’s named properly, right? 75 hard because it is very challenging. But this challenge is really all about creating better habits.

At very beginning of the challenge, you’ll set some intentions around things you might want to change. But really, every day is going to be a short podcast, a video, and an email that you get in your inbox. And it just gives you a small habit that you’re going to try that day. And it only takes about five to 15 minutes each day. One of the things is daily movement. you get to choose whatever it is that speaks to you.

what you know if it’s joyful movement you get bonus points for that maybe some kitchen dancing something but if you’re already on an exercise program it’s just going to have you you know you can make it into something that’s a little longer for you or maybe try a different thing for that 30 days but that’s one of the main components because i do believe that moving your body every day if you’re not in the habit of it brings more awareness around that and just committing to doing that you will feel so much better by the end of 30 days and if you’re already moving

you are going to get to try all these little habits that I have planned out for the 30 days. And if it’s something that speaks to you, once you try the habit, hopefully I’m thinking that you’ll try to implement it every day of the challenge. But if it didn’t speak to you, if it didn’t resonate or it’s something that you already do, you’re kind of just gonna leave that behind. You’re gonna take from this what you need from it.

And it’ll be, know, all of it has research links every day. So if you’re interested in spending more time on this particular habit, you can read about why it’s good for you or how long it might take to implement it, that sort of thing. So it’s really been a lot of work. And I actually, because of being a little bit sick, I haven’t recorded the rest of it at this point, but I got a little bit more to do. I’ve got the emails set up for the daily emails. And now it’s just a matter of recording the rest of the content.

so that when you are on that day with the habit, I’ll be right there with you. I’ll be talking about it. I’ll be sharing about how I use it in my daily life and maybe some more of the research. So it’ll be in an audio format where if you’re in the car going to work or something, like I said, the habit itself, whatever you’re gonna try is only gonna take five to 15 minutes for that day. But if it’s one of the habits that you’re more interested in, you’ll get to hear more about it and learn more about it. And hopefully it’s, you know, learn that it’s something that you could really use in your life and that might really help you. So.

That is a challenge. I would love for you to join me. Like I said, it’s a hundred percent free and you can just go sign up right now It’s a heal nourish grow comm slash habits So please please do this share it with your friends because you always are more successful creating new habits when you have friends involved You can talk about the different ones together. What’s what’s working for you? What’s not? It’s just it’s just more fun when you have more people involved. So

And you know, I always greatly appreciate it if you share the podcast or share my content with others, because that’s the easiest way that people find me. It is getting so much more challenging on the internet these days with AI to find people that resonate with you to find real people that are doing work in the space and in any space, really. It’ll be interesting to see really how that evolves over the next several years for sure. But

If you would share it, I’d be very grateful. HealNursePro.com slash habits. That’s how you sign up. The second thing I want to share with you, that’s another resource for the new year. It is a summit that I’ve been involved with in the past and they reached out to me and asked if I could share about it again. And I said, of course, because it’s something I really believe in. They always have great speakers. It’s another thing that’s 100 percent free. And that is the Quit Sugar Summit. And it’s not it’s interesting because even if you don’t want to totally remove sugar from your life or

If you already have a healthy relationship with sugar, doesn’t bother you. You don’t have diabetes, those sorts of things. The speakers are all just really excellent speakers in this health space. And I think whether you really want to quit sugar or not, you will still get some great knowledge from that and maybe get some tips and tricks and different things that you can, like I said, implement into the new year and just learn about. And so that is heelnourishgrow.com slash quit sugar summit. So super easy to sign up for that free as well. It starts, I believe, January 12th. So you’ve got a little bit of time, but

you go ahead and sign up for it now they’ll send you some reminders about when it’s going to start because you do need to watch it on the days that they send it out because that’s how they make the summit for free basically. So that content will be available on the day that it is registered to run and then after that unfortunately you won’t have access unless you choose to pay for it but it’s a really great way to get some free content watch the ones you can

or watch just the ones that you’re interested in, you’ll get the names of them beforehand. So that’s another great resource for the new year. And then the last thing that I’ll talk about today, I’m going to keep this relatively short because I’m sure that my voice is a little bit annoying with the hoarseness that I still have left from my little cold or whatever it was.

is that this is another resource that I’ve been wanting to create for a long time. And it really came to me when I was doing my contest prep for the bodybuilding shows and doing some serious dieting, which I still need to share all of that with you, kind of some lessons learned and some thoughts around that, because doing this at 52 and still being able to lose weight aggressively was really interesting. And I think it just goes to show you.

that it’s definitely possible. There just might be some things in your head that you have to get past a little bit or habits that you might need to change slightly to make that still available to you and your body. So if that happens to be a goal for you in the new year to lose weight or work on your relationship with food, have some content coming around that, but.

The one that I really want to create and I think is useful for anybody, no matter what your goal is, because it’s also useful if your goal is to build muscle or to gain weight, and that is macros. The power of macros. I have been tracking macros way back since when Spark people was still around. It has gone out of business a long time ago, but that was one of the first trackers before my fitness pal, before any of that. When I was back when I was a runner, I would often track my macros or any time that I needed to lose a couple pounds. That’s what I rely on.

And macros gives you so much more flexibility than a diet plan than a strict, you know, whether it’s a vegetarian diet or keto diet or Whole30 diet, it gives you so much more flexibility than any of those options, because you simply learn how to track your food and what it’s about. so that plan for that one is to kind of do a macros 101 class for you and just share

know, first of all, what are if you’re, I mean, at this point, I feel like everybody has heard this term, but I quite often realize that I’m a very, I’m in a very specific space where I read, listen to, consume this kind of content all the time. And it’s basically my work life, right? So it’s something that I’m very educated on. And so I kind of forget sometimes that there are people that don’t know some of these terms. And I’d be curious, comment below. If when I said macros, you knew immediately.

what it was and if you’re like, what the heck is this? Because I just be curious. I think most people do know at this point. But anyway, macros are fat, carbohydrates and protein. Alcohol is kind of considered a fourth macro in a way, and I will definitely talk about that in the macros 101 class. But I wanted to save that for when my voice is actually fully back and I’m not still stuffy so that it’s because it’s to be a long term, I think great piece of evergreen content and I want it to sound.

little bit better than I’m sounding right now if that’s possible. So that’s coming as well. So that’s kind of what’s been going on over here and the reason that I have been a little delayed. I do have an interview with a guest that is already prepped that will be coming up and it’s a really interesting guest that went through a lot of personal challenges and just kind of sharing some of her insights and ways that she was able to overcome those things and

some projects that she is personally working on to create some experiences for people that I think could be really interesting to a lot of my audience. And that is, you know, groups of women, and they kind of go out into nature into the wild and just learn skills around being outside and reconnecting with the outdoors. And so I’m really excited to share about that coming up too. But anyway, that is all I wanted to say for today. So again, if you could go

over and sign up for the challenge. It’s heelnourishgrow.com slash habits. And I hesitated to even call it a challenge because yeah, don’t I don’t honestly don’t think it will be too challenging. And that is the beauty of approaching habits in this way. And when you go, if you go listen to the thing, the five things you need to create healthy habits, it’s really about starting small and building on that. And you know,

doing things like habit stacking, you everybody, you brush your teeth every morning and every night, right? You always do that. So if you need to do anything, like take a new supplement or something, you know, putting it right next to your toothpaste, that’s a great way to do that. So habit stacking is also something that we’ll chat about in the challenge, but I really think it’s like a reset and it’s a way to try new things. So that’s how I’m looking at it. That’s how it’ll be approaching it with you. And again, I

you will sign up for that and join me share it with your friends and family so they can join you too and we’ll all get healthier in 2026. Like I said, I’ve definitely got some new goals and I’m working on some things for myself and I’m going to be doing each of these habits each of the days that they go out as well because I want to learn from it and I want to see you know which ones resonated with me or is there anything that I’m doing in my daily life that I should have shared that could have been a better habit to share with you to try.

So yeah, so we’ll all be doing it together and I’m really excited about like I said I thought about doing this a whole bunch in the past and I just haven’t found a way to deliver it and really Map it out the way that I have this time So I would love to have you along for the ride But anyway until next time which will hopefully be much sooner here now that I am well and back to recording and the other I think I mentioned with the challenge is there will be The audio

component, it’ll be like a special podcast episodes for a series for a while. And so if you’re catching this later, and you missed signing up for the challenge, once it’s out January 1, you can actually start it at any time. And the beauty is, I think you should be able to start it over as well. So if you really enjoyed it, you get off track for a little while you want to come back to it.

can always just start over the 30 days kind of like an evergreen thing so no matter when you hear this in the future this will be available to you. So that’s all for now and I hope you have happy happy holidays however you’re celebrating enjoy your time with friends and family and then let’s all get ready for 2026 and creating some new awesome habits so see you next

In this episode, Cheryl McColgan discusses strategies for maintaining wellness during the holiday season. She emphasizes the importance of setting realistic intentions, managing weight, coping with stress, making mindful eating and drinking choices, and balancing social obligations with self-care. Cheryl provides practical tips for navigating holiday challenges, including travel and family dynamics, while encouraging listeners to be intentional and mindful throughout the season.

You can find Cheryl’s previous episodes about avoiding holiday weight gain here.

Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.

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Episode Transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:01.038)
Hey everyone, I’m Cheryl McColgan, founder of Peel Nourish Row, and it has been a little while since I’ve been on the mic. I took an unexpected longer hiatus than I thought I would, and I’m just now getting around to starting to record again. And I really wanted to get on here and do this episode because the holidays are such a stressful time for everyone. It’s a time where people could use extra support, could use extra ideas about how to

de-stress, not gain weight during the holidays, and just find ways to support your wellness in this busy time of the season. So I’ve done another episode like this in the past, and I’ll be sure to link that in the show notes, but for this one I did map out a few bullet points to keep me on track. I’ve got my laptop here with that on it so that I can glance over there occasionally and remind myself of what I wanted to share with you today. But the first thing is this why this, what does holiday mean?

wellness even mean or why does it matter? Again, it’s a stressful time. We’re around family for some times that’s very exciting and sometimes it can be very stressful and there’s a lot of travel involved typically and a lot of extra events and cooking and things like that. So it can be just a time where there’s so much going on that you forget to actually take care of yourself. So planning ahead now so that you don’t have to recover from everything at the beginning of the year is a good plan.

And usually what I like to say during the holidays, I mean, if you’re a lot of people that listen to this podcast are interested in weight loss or fitness or health and wellness. If you’re trying to lose weight during the holidays, that can be particularly challenging. I think what would be a better goal for most people is to just maintain during the holidays and not gain extra weight that you then have to kind of backtrack from the progress that you’ve made throughout the year. So all that being said,

I think the good way to start with this is just to set some intentions around the holidays. So for example, just to be really mindful every time that you eat or, consistent movement or practicing on your sleep during the holidays to make sure that you stay on track with your wellness. So whatever that intention is, just making something specific enough that you know what it is that you’re trying to accomplish, but generally it’s not going to be any big goals during this time of the year.

Cheryl McColgan (02:24.606)
Just because it’s like I said a lot of extra stress a lot of extra things going on and so Setting really big goals around health and wellness this time of year can just be a way that sets you up for failure Which is not what we want want to go into the new year Thinking positive feeling positive and having every intention that way when we get to the new year We’re kind of set up in this place.

been mindful, we’ve been practicing taking care of ourselves and then once we get to the new year we can really focus on those bigger goals that you want for yourself and your wellness in 2026. So after you’ve set the intentions let’s address the first thing is weight. I actually looked this up before I got on here and most people gain anywhere between a pound to five pounds during the time period from Thanksgiving to the end of the year.

And while that can be also if your intention is to say enjoy time with family, eat really good foods, just nourish yourself and not to worry too much about weight gain, that is a perfectly acceptable intention as well. But if you want to think about, you know, maintaining your weight or not gaining weight during the holidays, then it’s important to kind of have a plan when you go into this. So the first thing, you know, I’m going to say is what we’re always very focused on here is the importance of protein.

Protein is a very satiating nutrient. There’s a lot of theories around about how your body will keep seeking out food if you’re not getting a proper protein intake. So that’s the first thing. So every time you sit down to a meal, plan on getting your protein in first, and then you can have a little bit more flexibility with the rest of your meal because you know that you’ve gotten your protein requirements out of the way. And then you can fill in after that with fats and carbohydrates. If you’re a carbohydrate eater, if you’re still trying to practice keto during the holidays, it is a time.

perhaps be just a little more flexible with that only because there’s going to be a lot of temptations there’s going to be a lot of things you want to try so again having that intention around that whether it’s taking a bite here or there or allowing yourself certain days of the week or a party or something like that to enjoy a few more carbs again just being really mindful and setting that intention so that you don’t kind of go off the rails with that stuff because some people one of the reasons they do a lower carb lifestyle is because they don’t have

Cheryl McColgan (04:40.728)
They don’t either feel good when they eat carbs or they have a relationship with them where when they eat too many carbs, it makes them hungrier and eat more. So if you know that you’re that person, you certainly don’t want to set yourself on this crazy path of that during the holidays by eating a lot of extra cookies or potatoes or candy or whatever it is you’re normally avoiding for the most part. So being really mindful about those choices and allowing them in in the quantities that make sense for you and your personal goals.

So the other thing is eating to 80 % fullness. Now this is something that we should be practicing pretty much all of the time if you’re doing an eating program where you’re doing just more of an intuitive eating kind of style. If you want to give yourself time for your brain to get the feeling of whether you’re actually full or not. So eating slowly, eating mindfully, chewing your food and stopping.

when you’re already starting to feel full because it takes a little while for your brain to catch up with your body. So if you’re already starting to feel full, chances are 20 minutes later, 30 minutes later, you’re gonna be, you might have that stuffed feeling, which a lot of people have after Thanksgiving meals. So just being really mindful of why you’re adjusting to take note of how you’re feeling if you’re starting to get full and shooting for that 80 % mark in that way.

If you go a little over, you’re not going to end up on the couch with your holding your stomach and just being miserable. You’ll probably end up in a much better place. Also, I have two thoughts on this. And again, it’s about knowing the kind of person you are. So there’s this idea of saving your calories for certain big meals and everything. And I think that that can work for some people, especially if you’re tracking your macros and you’re eating a meal that maybe you made or that it’s a simple meal like tracking a certain quantity of turkey, for example.

that’s very easy to track. So you can either save some calories for later, so not eating as much throughout the day so that you know when you have a big meal that you’re not going to go over your calorie allotment for the day. But again, it’s about knowing yourself. If in the past you’ve experienced that, for example, on Thanksgiving, you don’t eat most of the day or you just eat a very small breakfast and then you go totally overboard, you feel sick the rest of the night,

Cheryl McColgan (06:52.886)
You might be better off having two smaller meals earlier in the day, again, very protein forward. And maybe yes, okay, saving a little bit of your calories for that last final bigger meal, but not allowing yourself to get so ravenous that you just go off the rails when the meal comes. So again, knowing yourself here is the key to practicing this and to knowing which one will work best for you. So just give that some consideration before you go into those days where you know it’s going to be a bigger food day.

knowing your plan also is a big key here. So don’t wait until the last minute to kind of mentally prepare yourself for what’s going to happen. Have a plan when you go in at this point, you know, you’re listening to this, you’re not a five year old, you’re an adult, you’ve had many holiday meals, you know what your tendencies are. And so just again, set some intentions around how you want it to be different this year and how you’re going to approach things so that you end up with a successful holiday.

The next thing is holiday stress and cortisol. Cortisol is such a big trending topic right now. I’m just getting out of balance. And so the top triggers are in this scenario, probably family obligations or family relationships. So again, just setting your intention, kind of knowing how you approach these kinds of things, knowing the kind of stress that you might encounter.

And having some strategies ready to better deal with that. So for example, if you know that you get very overwhelmed once all your family’s around and all these things are happening, maybe make it your intention that you’re going to go for a walk after dinner or something like that. Or maybe just take some time for yourself to kind of regroup, calm down, do some deep breathing exercises, whatever it is that you feel is going to nourish you.

is you don’t have to spend eight hours in a row with the entire family doing all these activities that can be very, very stressful. again, knowing yourself and taking a little break away from that if you need to practice some breathing exercises, practice some ways to calm yourself and certainly getting into activity throughout the day. It’s a really nice way to accomplish that. I also find that there’s this idea.

Cheryl McColgan (09:02.127)
of the way that people communicate, you know, often at the holidays, it’s like everybody’s around the table and you’re really face to face and you’re, you’re catching up on things. Sometimes you’re talking about intense topics, but there’s this idea of, you know, conversing face to face, which is very intense and can be one way. And another thing where it’s more like a side by side interaction, like if you’re walking or you’re doing an activity, you’re not looking at each other, you’re still being able to communicate. You’re still being able to have time together, but it’s just not that really intense draining kind of thing.

So maybe thinking of some activities that you can do together as a family, or again, taking that little time for yourself away for a little bit can be a way to mitigate some of that stress. And then maintaining your routine. You’re not going to be able to maintain your routine probably perfectly over the holidays, but the more that you can stick to that, the more that you can stick to your routine about going to bed at a certain hour and doing a certain amount of exercise that you normally do, the less

that you deviate from that plan, the better you’ll feel throughout the holidays. Again, it’s going to require some flexibility. Things are going to, you know, not always go perfectly, but if you can stay to some kind of schedule and be consistent, that’s really going to help you a lot. Also, you don’t need to add a lot of extra stress to yourself during this time. So if it is more stress to get in your workout for that day, then it is to

mindfully skip a day and then do what you need to do, you’re going to actually lessen your cortisol doing that because if you still try to do all the things, workout, do all this, and then you have the extra stress on top of it, that might make you feel even more overwhelmed. So taking those breaks when you need it, being mindful, and not using that as an excuse to skip workouts or to skip taking care of yourself or to go to bed late every night, really try to find

much as possible, you know some people hate this word, but trying to find balance around that as much as possible is going to be really a key to having a great holiday season. And then the next thing is around healthy drinks and alcohol holidays. Whether you choose not to drink at all and that is certainly a trend now that I 100 % support because you know I’ve said it before

Cheryl McColgan (11:20.503)
And I’ll say it again, just for those you who may not have heard this, or you may not always have it in your awareness may not want to happen your awareness, I am sometimes guilty of that myself. But alcohol is a poison. There’s really no amount of it that is safe. And depending on who you are in your health, potential problems, it can be much worse for some people. So that’s definitely something to give some consideration to it increases your risk of cancer, it increases risk of

you basically everything negative can be traced back to consuming alcohol. Now, that all being said, many of us still choose to drink knowing the dangers and knowing the risks with that. And there is also an idea. So if you look at French culture or Italian culture, and people often call that out because those cultures drink primarily wine, but it’s not the Reservoir Troll. That’s kind of been debunked for a long time. It’s more about that they

use alcohol as a way to be together in community and to be very social and they don’t go overboard with it. So that’s probably at least part of the reason that we find in those populations that it doesn’t seem to be as detrimental to health. But again, all that being said, just make good choices around it. Be mindful of quantity, be mindful of very sugary drinks. just, it racks up the calories. So always choosing those beverages that might be on the slightly

healthier side for the lack of a better word for alcohol, but that would be things that are clear that don’t have a lot of additives, drinking organic wines whenever possible, taking a break in between to have a glass of water before you have the next one and really thinking about whether you even need the next one. There’s a great app for this that I’ve called out on the podcast before called Sunny Side and it just helps you track drinks. And if you do it in the moment as you’re doing it, it might really make you consider

Hey, do I need to go to this next one? Is that going to totally derail me? Because the other thing that happens when people drink alcohol is they tend to make less good decisions around food, right? They may say, well, forget it. just, you know, I’m going to have everything now because it clouds your judgment. And it also can, I think, make you hungrier when you’re having alcohol. So that’s just something to be thinking about too. And then so that’s the drinks part, the food part.

Cheryl McColgan (13:41.444)
What is your strategy around going to parties? Again, knowing yourself here is key. So if you go to a party, super hungry, or you’re just going to eat whatever’s available and it might not be the healthiest choices. Or do you choose to have a high protein, small meal before you go to a party so that you’re not as ravenous when you get there. And that makes it so much easier to only choose the things that are really appeal to you that feel worth it calorie wise that are a great taste. Because it really, the holidays should be

more about being in community with people and nurturing your relationships. And we make it so much about food and drink. And that is an amazing and fun part. mean, you know, this is coming from our recipe developers, when who loves to eat, who loves to cook. It’s kind of the way that I show my love and appreciation for people is to feed them and to cook for them. So I am again, I’m certainly not there’s no judgment around this. It is just trying to be mindful of decisions that you’re making when you’re in these social situations. And when you’re

parties in particular because the types of foods that tend to be there are not the most nourishing. So one thing you could try if this is you and you know you struggle with this is having a two-bite rule or something like that. So if there is a dish that you really want to try or something extra that’s there that is really looks appealing to you, just having two bites and then moving away from that for a while.

And again, so this is where eating a small meal before you go really helps because you’re not ravenous and then you just have a couple bites here and there. You’re focused on socializing and being with the people that you’re enjoying. And I think that can be a really great way to approach parties. Another scenario is when you again have these family gatherings, quite often you might be asked...

In this episode of the Heal Nourish Grow podcast, host Cheryl McColgan speaks with holistic nutritionist Meg Gage about her personal journey with acne and how it led her to help others. Meg discusses the multifaceted nature of acne, emphasizing the importance of mindset, gut health, and customized skincare approaches. She shares insights on how stress and limiting beliefs can impact skin health and offers practical tips for listeners to start their healing journey. The conversation highlights the need for a holistic approach to acne treatment, integrating mental, physical, and emotional well-being.

Connect with Meg to learn more at her website.

Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.

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Episode Transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:01)
Hello everyone, welcome to the Heal Nourish Grow podcast. Today I am joined by Meg Gage. I hope I got that right, it’s spelled a little differently. And she has a really interesting health history. She’s a holistic nutritionist. She specializes actually in acne, I guess, prevention and treatment. And as you can see by her skin, I mean, it looks amazing here if you’re watching on video. So if you can’t see it, maybe pop over to YouTube.

Meg (00:08)
You did.

Cheryl McColgan (00:30)
But it wasn’t always this way Meg, right? So I’d love it if you could just start by sharing a little bit of your history, your health journey, and then we’ll eventually get into how you came to figure out like how to get rid of acne. So welcome.

Meg (00:45)
Thank you. Yeah, it’s quite the journey. feel anyone who becomes a healer always has quite their own story as to how they got there. But yeah, ever since I was five, I just dealt with multiple traumas and that kind of stress of living in prolonged kind of fight flight breathe since I was little showed up very physically for me in a lot of symptoms, one of which was long standing acne.

since I was 12 and others were chronic pain, chronic fatigue, a lot of misdiagnosed disease of like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. All the while at that point when I was 12 being put on hormonal birth control without any kind of questions asked, that’s just what we did back in those days. So, you without having many cycles of my own, I was just put on these synthetic hormones as well.

And kind of throughout dealing with major health issues over the years and a couple of car accidents and whiplash and PTSD and concussions, my acne was always such a consistent thing in the background. And when I came off hormonal birth control without any prep work or understanding that after a decade, this might have crazy impacts on my hormones when they try to kind of rebalance themselves, my acne exploded into very cystic hormonal

me all over my face, all over my back, all over my bum, very painful. And it really just started my quest in kind of the natural healing world. And for the next five years, I tried everything from, you know, naturopaths to nutritionists to Chinese medicine practitioners to herbalists to acupuncture, all in a quest kind of to heal my skin and nothing worked.

And it was a very frustrating journey. I was spending upwards of $30,000 on this. It felt like a full-time job, distress when you’re kind of putting 100 % of your effort into healing something for it not to work. And then just seeing so many practitioners that were telling you so many, so many varying things. And I just…

got to a point where I was like, need to do this myself. I need to listen to my own intuition. I need to take my power back. I feel like everyone’s just pulling me in 50 different directions and taking my money. So that’s when I became a holistic nutritionist and my mind was just blown. Once I actually learned about the body and how much could be impacting my skin, it just basically led me to my own healing journey of multiple root causes that I had lived with for my entire life.

And Geklo was kind of born very organically after that once I graduated because I was like, my gosh, if I can do this for myself, I want to do this for others and never have them go through what I went through. And also just becoming the practitioner I wanted throughout that journey, which was a really hard thing to find anyone who had been through debilitating acne or health issues and had that like understanding and validation component of what’s needed out of a practitioner at that time.

So yeah, I’ve been doing it nine years now and helped over 2,500 clients.

Cheryl McColgan (04:00)
That’s amazing. you know, I’m sure a lot of people can really relate to this story, because especially people that are in their teens and then into their early 20s, a lot of people really struggle with acne. you know, there’s so many, there’s so many things out there that people think are the reason and, you know, nutrition, think is certainly part of it. But, you know, as you know, and as you’ve come to find out, that’s not the whole story. So when you were originally being put on

hormonal birth control, which I think is really common and really unfortunate because it can have a lot of long term impacts on your future fertility and things like that. So I think people should really be digging into that further. And a lot of practitioners that’s still kind of their go to today. But after the hormonal birth control, were there any things where you thought, you know, that was helping a little or that seemed promising initially to you and then didn’t end up panning out?

Were there any of those things in there that did turn out to be a piece of the puzzle once you finally got it figured out?

Meg (05:02)
But the issue always is when you’re taking an either or approach, it never works, right? And that’s what was happening. So, okay, fine. I was seeing an atropath who was running Dutch tests and, obviously my results were coming back with cortisol and very, very common indications of living in fight flight breeze. So sure, that’s an answer. But if you’re giving a very stressed out person a million supplements that are super expensive and not getting to the root of the stress, and then

I’m going, they’re telling me nothing about skincare or they’re not doing anything from a support perspective. Of course it’s not going to work. Right? So by the same token, you’re seeing an aesthetician, people always go right to skincare, right? When they’re breaking out and they go see an aesthetician and they do chemical peels and lasers and all that. I was doing that on and off too. But again, there was no communication.

between the three modalities that I now do and have an understanding of the three things you need. You need mindset, you need rewiring of all the negative belief patterns, limiting beliefs, fears, to get yourself out of fight, flight, freeze and get your cortisol regulated. You need proper skincare, yes. And then you also need the internal root cause of like, what is your body trying to communicate with you? So without those, it just wasn’t a complete picture. So you would never really know what was working or not because you didn’t have all the pieces.

Do you know what mean? Like it just, never worked. So to me, it’s like, in either approach is just wasting a lot of money for someone with acne because those protocols are extremely expensive. But if you don’t have all three, you’re going to think it’s not working, right?

Cheryl McColgan (06:40)
So it sounds like from what you’re saying, I mean, it’s a multifactorial problem that we’re dealing with here, usually with acne. But would you say that the first thing, you mentioned mindset and you mentioned getting yourself out of stress. Would that be, for example, maybe one of the first things that you would address when you start working with somebody? Because I think stress affects so many things, not just acne, of course, but so many health problems, seems like, even if it didn’t clear your acne, that’d be an amazing place to start. So could you talk a little bit more

about that and how you start to help people get out of that fight flight mode.

Meg (07:15)
The root of the root of the root of everything for acne is your mindset. Like I stand by that 100%. It is always where I start with people because if you are telling yourself, I’ll always have acne, nothing works for me, that’s a script you’re printing out and your body’s gonna be like, okay, I’m gonna have more acne. I’m gonna get stuck in this state. So until we actually rewire that kind of subconscious pattern that people are having and you make your body feel

safe to heal. I don’t care how perfect your diet is. I don’t care how many supplements you’re taking. I don’t care how many expensive tests you’re doing. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have that piece under control. And this is where I see people running into these walls, why they have these 10, 20-year acne journeys. And they say to me, without doubt, the number one thing on application is, well, I’ve tried it all. And I’m like, you haven’t tried it all. There’s something missing or else you’d be clear, right?

Right there is a limiting belief keeping you stuck in still and in this acne journey. Right? So the number one thing I do is a lot of subconscious reprogramming, eradicating the root of that fear, limiting belief, and really ensuring that your body can regulate on its own and not produce constant cortisol, which then it’s going to impact things like blood sugar and sex hormones and your gut and your liver. And it’s this like tornado impact.

And so yeah, it’s always where I start, 100%.

Cheryl McColgan (08:47)
And you have tips for people? Like, of course, you have programs, you have your website and then all these really great resources for people. But I’m thinking there’s probably people out there that have been on this journey and they’re thinking, yeah, I’ve heard they’re like what you’re just saying. Let me I’ve already tried it all. This isn’t going to work either. What makes this lady think, you know, I haven’t done all these things. If that’s where their heads at and they just need like some kind of taste of how things could be, where would you have them?

start in addressing the beliefs or the stress? Is there something that they can kind of do on their own so that they see like, yeah, Meg is kind of onto something here. Maybe I do trust her to move forward with this process.

Meg (09:24)
Me?

For sure. The first thing I would do is start to be conscious and make a list of every limiting thought you’re having in a day. Any negative thought you’re having. Because if you’ve got acne, that’s on a Rolodex multiple times a day. You catch yourself in the mirror, you hate what you see. What are you saying to yourself? What are you saying to yourself all day? How many cortisol spikes are you doing as soon as you wake up? In the morning is the first thing you do, touching your face, running to the mirror and crying at what you see because you have 10 new pimples or it didn’t magically, you know.

appear overnight or clear up overnight, make a list of exactly what you’re saying to yourself and then look at that list and be shocked that this is how you’re talking to yourself. And once you see that the actual like physical words, it really does usually show people like imagine you spoke to your daughter like this. Imagine you spoke to your best friend like this, you would never and you’re speaking to yourself like this.

30 times a day. Like that alone can just trigger how much power our words have. So I would try starting there and just kind of understanding and being aware of it. And then using something like a powerful affirmation tool, that’s the opposite of that of what you want to be saying to yourself and start repeating those instead. It’s almost like you have to catch it. It’s like if you think of that like mean girl on your shoulder who’s like constantly trying to bully you.

And sometimes I tell clients to visualize it like mine’s Val, she wears all black, she is nasty, she’s been around since I’ve been 12 and I’m like, Val, I don’t have time for you today, like out you go. But sometimes it helps with that, right? Of just like giving it a character. And you know, once we kind of replace those negative with positive thoughts, you will start to physically feel different in your body.

Cheryl McColgan (11:16)
I think you’re onto something with not just, I think it’s not only limiting beliefs in relation to acne, but really this could help people with their entire life. So once you’re in that mindset, yes, of course.

Meg (11:23)
everything. Yes, of course. It’s just that I do it specifically to acne. But yes, it’s a ripple effect.

Like this is why I work so much with mindset. Now it’s been such a huge shift in my projects over the last couple of years because it has a ripple effect. So when my clients see me, I’m like, okay, but what’s your like best, happiest, most aligned life, everything from finances to relationships to your career, all of that gets shifted with mind that works.

Cheryl McColgan (11:54)
Yeah, that’s amazing. I love that tip. And just for people out there who are so stuck in that, feel like initially, when people go into this kind of work, they might struggle to even find themselves a positive affirmation. So could you give an example of maybe maybe it’s one of yours? Or maybe it’s one an example that you love from one of your clients that they used to kind of make this shift and kind of repeatedly go back to to have like one in your back pocket that you know kind of will work.

Meg (12:17)
Yeah,

the biggest limiting belief I’ve seen across the board is worthiness. So I think starting with I am worthy, I am enough are huge, because that just does have a ricochet effect into every kind of area they’re not feeling good enough in. Right. And I think starting really simple is good as well getting familiar with with that feeling of like,

Oh my gosh. Like usually when you start that work, like when I did, I would have like this like, oh, reaction to saying a positive affirmation, like, oh, this is so foreign to be nice to myself. But the more that you do it, it’s like, I always explain like the brain is like a muscle that needs flexing, right? If you don’t go to the gym, you go three times and you walk out with a six pack. And the whole time you’re going to the gym as well. Your brain’s like, oh, I’m tired. It hurts. I don’t want to go back there. I don’t think we should go. Let’s just eat chips on the couch.

the same thing with your brain. Like it’s going to be refuting that process because it thinks it’s keeping you safe and you’ve been telling yourself that for years. So just like something very simple is where I would start with that.

Cheryl McColgan (13:11)
you

That’s a great tip. love when we can get guests with like tangible things like something that somebody can put into practice immediately today to start to really shift things in their lives. So that being said, mindset is the very base, base, base that you’re working with. After people start to kind of dig into that and start to do that work, it’s not only like, obviously you still need to cleanse your skin in a way that’s healthful and foods that you eat that will support.

Meg...

In this conversation, Cheryl McColgan shares her journey of preparing for a NPC Fit Model bodybuilding competition at the age of 52. This episode is in vlog format and best viewed on YouTube although it’s still being released as an audio podcast. She discusses her training regimen, nutritional strategies, and the mental challenges she faces throughout the process.

Cheryl emphasizes the importance of protein intake, understanding ketosis, and the role of supplements in her routine. She also reflects on her daily activities, meal preparations, and the significance of maintaining a healthy body fat percentage while training for the fit model competition.

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Episode Transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:00.504)
So I’m back a little later in the day here getting ready to make my dinner, but I realized when I started editing the video that I did not really set this up very well. So I wanna put this at the beginning. I am sharing with you a day in what I’ve been doing for the last almost 10 weeks now. And that is training, eating, losing fat for possibly competing in the fit model category in the NPC.

When I thought about this in the, well first of all, thinking about doing this at age 52 is quite daunting, never having been stepped on stage before in a bodybuilding competition. But if you wanna learn more about that thought process, I have another podcast that I did on that and I’ll link that down below. But basically, I’m still not 100 % certain that I’m.

to do it, but I’ve been training, eating, doing fat loss for last 10 weeks as if I am definitely going to do it. So it’s just a little scary and that’s the only reason I’m thinking about not doing it. I think it’ll be fun in a lot of ways. I think it would be a great experience and I’m all about

challenging myself and putting myself out of my comfort zone. So that’s why I started it. anyway, so this is kind of just my day, how I’ve been training, how I’ve been eating, bio hacks that I do, supplements that I use, all that kind of good stuff that will all be here in the video.

Yeah, I don’t normally do vlogs, so this is totally new format for me, but hopefully you’ll find it helpful or somewhat entertaining or maybe while you’re trying to get through your cardio, you’ll be watching this video, which is how I’ve been getting through a lot of my things that I’ve been doing over the last several weeks, listening to podcasts, watching videos, watching other people talk about their preps and things like that.

Cheryl McColgan (01:55.946)
So without further ado, let’s move on to my day. Hey everyone, good morning. This is going to be a totally different kind of video for me. I’ve never done one of these before, but I thought I would take you through a day in the life of prep. So you can see a little bit what it’s more about, get some of my feelings on it. Yesterday was a particularly difficult day. So we made it through, woke up this morning. Actually, the first thing I do in the morning that I did not video is get on the scale because that’s what you do

you’re tracking and I…

this morning, so despite yesterday being an awful day, we did have progress, at least in the sense of what the goal is right now, is moving that body fat down. So now, I’m just going to make some coffee, do some fasting cardio, which by the way, there’s still no great evidence that that’s that much better, but I have been doing that right now just to go ahead and push my first meal off a little bit, because when you’re in a cow

deficit especially for this long it gets to be quite monotonous a little challenging so the later I can eat that first meal the better so but first coffee and I do a pour over every morning so I’ll show you that. So here is my little coffee setup I’ve got I this is the Breville it’s actually a tea maker which I’ve had this for I don’t know 15 years now or something I’m obsessed with it it has a basket that goes in here to make the tea that actually

the handle in there like brings it up and down so that it puts it into the water and you can change the temperature for the different types of teas. You can see all the different ones. I just put it on custom to heat water. anyway, when it makes the tea, it heats it at the proper temperature. So if you have black tea is a different temperature than green tea. And then when it’s done brewing the handle here, it brings the basket back up so that it doesn’t steep too long. But anyway, delicious tea. But in the morning I use it to heat up the water for

Cheryl McColgan (03:57.072)
I have my burger grinder and then I have the pour-over so that’s what’s coming next.

Cheryl McColgan (04:13.646)
So ideally you’d be taking more creatine just before a workout and I do have a lift today but I find that sometimes I forget doing it pre-workout so I like to just do it in the morning first thing. Also, I’m very interested in creatine for its cognitive benefits other than just muscle building. So for me, I feel like just getting it during the day is more important than the exact timing so I’ll often just take it.

Right here in the morning just so I get it in and then I occasionally will also Right now my protocol is to take it before and after this so I will take it after for some reason I don’t have as much trouble remembering that but then I also put a little Taurine and hyaluronic acid in my coffee in the morning I haven’t been doing the collagen just because of extra calories, which you do have to be a little bit concerned about while you’re on a calorie

because it is getting plenty of protein right now, so I’m not doing that at the moment.

Okay, before coffee, just thought I’d share this with you because if you came to this channel for its original content, you may have been here because you wanted to try keto or had curiosity about the keto diet or being in ketosis. And so what I wanted to share is since I’ve been training more and doing this contest prep, I’ve actually been eating 100 carbs a day, which has been very different than what I’ve done in the past. But what I want to show you about that is that

truly being in ketosis if that’s your goal or

Cheryl McColgan (05:49.44)
eating what amount of carbs will allow you to get in that metabolic state is really different for everyone depending on your activity level and a variety of other factors. How long you’ve been doing it, that kind of thing, how easily your body goes in and out of ketosis if that’s truly your goal. So I just want to show you I have my ketone meter here and I thought we would check this this morning so that I can show you what that’s like now that I am in fact eating more carbs and for some people that want to have the benefits of ketosis but like having more carbs or miss their

This can be really useful information for you. So this will just be a really quick thing. Get the strip out here and put it into the meter and then we’ll go ahead and test it this morning.

meter and putting in the strip and breaking the feeder. I done this in quite a while but you know I always test I used to test all these things quite a lot so I have all of them so let’s go ahead and get this in here. So it takes a countdown of 10 to get the number and like I said I had about

yesterday. I’m waking up fast this morning.

and my ketone is reading at 0.9, which is a very therapeutic level of ketosis, despite the fact of eating plenty of carbs. Anyway, this is just a point of data to share with you. And then I’ve also been using my lumen. I test a lot of these things for my job, obviously. So I have the lumen. I’ve been using it occasionally. I actually used it the last three mornings, again, just out of curiosity. And what this tool does is it allows you, if you are a person that wants to check on your metabolic health, but be more flexible with the amount

Cheryl McColgan (07:34.547)
of carbs you have, actually directs you on a day-to-day basis of if you’re in fat burning mode, so kind of waking up in ketosis or not, and then how many carbs and different macronutrients you should plan for the rest of the day, depending on your goals. And so I’ve used that the last three mornings. It’s come up with fat burning every single morning. And it’s just an interesting tool again, especially if you’re looking for more flexibility in your diet. And like I said, I test some of these for my job, so it’s just kind of a curious thing for me. But definitely it’d be…

You know, being in ketosis despite eating a fair amount of carbs is definitely interesting information for a lot of people, especially way back in the day of keto. People were like, you know, if you had one little thing off, they were just thought ruined it and you’d have the keto police to come after you. It was quite a funny thing. But anyway, just for some extra information for you there.

So I’m definitely not used to a vlog format. We’ll see how this goes. But anyway, I came outside to enjoy my coffee before I go for my walk. It is rained last night. It’s about to rain again all day, but I have a break this morning so I can get that in. But I’m just going to enjoy this out here with the birds chirping for a few minutes and then we’ll get on the road for the cardio.

Cheryl McColgan (08:51.633)
workout outfit ever. I just have the same stuff I’ve had forever and I don’t typically try to wear fun things when I’m working out. I don’t know, I’m just fine with normal shorts or whatever but I have gotten a couple of little things lately from Amazon just to try to…

up my gym attire. This is one of the things I’m wearing today. I really like this a lot because for cardio it’s got pockets on the shorts that I can put my phone in when I’m out walking. I also have like a thing that attaches to my waistband that is not a fanny pack for carrying my phone which is quite useful because you can it’s magnets so you can attach it on any waistband that you have but whenever

It’s nice because it’s got the pocket for the phone. I’ll just show you the little outfit because it’s super comfortable.

and I really have been liking it but it’s just it’s a onesie kind of thing it’s got the built-in bra here’s the pockets and then this fun shirt that’s got like the fun back so anyway trying to look a little more presentable in my gym attire. So I found a new trail close by that’s been really great for doing all this extra cardio which I haven’t shared about that yet so right now my cardio is at 40

five minutes, four times a week, then I have twice a week, that’s 80 minutes that just turned on last week.

Cheryl McColgan (10:31.437)
And that’s because I’m getting towards the end here and we’re just trying to keep the scale moving. So as you know, all of this is for a very specific purpose. This is not like a long term thing. So it’s just planning for this specific event and that’s the goal. So that’s what we’re doing. But today is a 45 minute day and I just walk because I was a runner for 17 years and my knees do not get too happy about doing work.

aggressive things these days. I’m just happy to be able to walk and hike pain free. So I’m just walking fast has been enough to do what I’m supposed to do right now. So I’m about a third of the way through at the moment. And I was just trying to get this in before it rains. So we’ll check back with you when it is time for me to be finished with this and eat something.

kind of a lot. Keeping in mind that I test a lot of these for my work stuff. So some of them are things that I use for that reason. And then some of them I’ve added on prep, example, boron as something that my coach suggested. And when I looked at the purposes of that, does significantly help a little bit with fat loss, but also for maintaining bone.

a deficit, then I take this vitamin K2, that’s for heart health, and let’s see, my thyracin, that’s just thyroid support, and got another bottle in the cabinet and that, but that’s out. This one, urolithin A, this is for mitochondrial health and also to help with energy and strength, and it has some

research behind it that shows that you’ve got like 18 percent increase in strength over months. I’ve been taking this

Cheryl McColgan (12:33.201)
probably for a year now. it’s hard to say, but the one thing about supplements is you don’t know if you gained that much strength if you didn’t have it. So it’s kind of hard to tell, but I’ve definitely gained strength. Then I’ve also been taking fatty 15, which is an essential fatty acid that was discovered more recently. So it’s kind of a newer thing. And that’s one thing I’m testing out for.

just like I said for my job. And then I have the Methylgard Plus, and this is because I have the MTHR, MTHFR mutation, which basically means my body doesn’t methylate as well. And when I did some of my testing,

before I had a higher homocysteine level, which is bad for your heart health. And it’s something that happens when you have that gene mutation. So taking a methylated B vitamin helps your body methylate better, lowers homocysteine. And that’s definitely been the case since I’ve had it tested again since then. Then I have my vitality bits. So this has spirulina and corolla.

in it and those are good for energy and has super oxide dis-mutease in it which is again something that really helps with cellular function. So it can be a lot of pills but I just take them one at a time and then it’s finally on to eating. I almost forgot D3 that’s so critical because that is really helpful with fat loss and also just overall general health and something that most people are low

especially those of us that live further north and don’t get sun all winter. Okay, now for breakfast. This is actually one of my biggest diet hacks. I’ve said this before, making your food boring is really good for fat loss. It also just helps you, you know the same thing to make and to eat every day. It really just helps keep tracking simple. But I was eating this for a couple months actually before I started my fat loss thing. I’ve just kind of modified the quantity a little bit. So what I have been doing right now on

Cheryl McColgan (14:36.943)
Fat Loss Face is one egg and egg whites. So egg whites is 150 grams. These are just for my macros. Obviously your mileage may vary. fortunately I couldn’t find the one that I usually buy this time. So I’ve got something different, but it’s still just egg whites. guess I should shake that a little bit.

Cheryl McColgan (15:13.233)
and then a little salt and just whisk this up.

Cheryl McColgan (15:32.657)
So the egg whites and cottage cheese that I’m about to have in the breakfast or breaking the fast, the first meal of the day is about 30 to 35 calories, or 30 to 35 calories, 30 to 35 grams of protein. And I feel like this is a mistake that people make, especially when they’re on fat loss, because I see a lot of women in...